Twinks in Space: Destination Unknown - Part One - 21. Chapter 21 - War

The Cometskipper exited hyperspace at the edge of the old white dwarf’s planetary system, the closest landmark in space to where they thought the Ulaa-Lah was headed. Fonith’s ship was still far from the inner planet with the secret military base, but their attention was immediately drawn to the sprawling blackness of the void.

Space was in turmoil. Fleets of warships from multiple galactic militaries were blasting enemies into oblivion, and being destroyed by others.

“What is this?!” Phentrom gasped.

“I count at least five different contingencies!” Lyoth declared.

“What are they fighting over?” Stawren asked.

“And how have none of us heard about some enormous space war?” Fonith added incredulously. “How has this been kept a secret?”

“Maybe I should call my auntie Thia,” Stawren recommended. “She probably continued researching and might have found out more details. She might know what’s going on.”

Fonith extended Stawren her XG4, and she initiated the call to Neptithia.

“Hey, kid, I’ve been waiting for you to get back in touch with me!”

“Hi, auntie Thia, were you able to find out more information about this area of space?”

“I was indeed, and I don’t think you should go there. It looks like at least two different militaries are fighting over that empty quadrant.”

“Too late,” Stawren replied, “we’re already there, and we can see the battle happening from where we are. We count five military factions.”

“Really? How strange. Let me explain.” Neptithia continued. “There’s something in that empty patch of space that’s been code-named the Omni, but I haven’t been able to determine what it is. No deep space scanners are detecting anything and neither of the militaries have any details about why they’re fighting. I found an official brief saying that the Trilliron Galactic Navy initiated an assault against the Giblox Authority, but there’s no explanation of why they’re attacking each other. Couldn’t find anything from the Gilblox Authority at all. I would bet most of the soldiers on those ships don’t even know why they’re fighting.”

“That’s nothing new,” Lyoth commented. “You know, I didn’t think of it before, but maybe you should look up our old ship,” he recommended. “The Ulaa-Lah is what led us to this chaos in the first place.”

“Spell Ulaa-Lah for me,” Neptithia requested and Lyoth did.

Everyone remained quiet for a few minutes as she entered information into her comprehensive searches.

“I find plenty of general information about the ship… the captain…” she paused. “Oh, wait a second… this is interesting. I’m looking at the list of onboard politicians, and there are two councilmen and an advisor who are all affiliated with the Giblox Authority. The information may not be right in front of me as to why Giblox wants to go to that quadrant, but I suspect they have a reason.”

“Can you pull up the Ulaa-Lah’s current location?” Lyoth asked. “It has both a digital cloaking and a separate masking for its signature, but it seems like you can break through most of that type of stuff.”

Neptithia was quiet for another moment, and then she cooed, “Oooh, the Ulaa-Lah has been reclassified as a barracks ship. Hold on…” she paused again. “Got it! The readout is telling me the ship is there. It’s not in the planetary system or near the base you are headed to; it’s sitting on the edge of the battle.”

“The Ulaa-Lah is not fashioned with any heavy weaponry,” Phentrom said to Lyoth. “It’s always been a community vessel. What advantage could there possibly be in its being here? What benefit is it to the Giblox Authority?”

Lyoth did not answer Phentrom. “Neptithia,” he continued, “the other factions involved are the Vidoria League of Planets, Epstelioth Galactic Armada, and I can see a few ships from the Thipial Alliance.”

They watched her punch in the information. “None of those groups even have deep-space exploration teams,” she informed them. “What are they all doing way out there?”

A blinding flash made the four onboard the Cometskipper look over toward the battle.

“One of the command ships for the Trilliron Galactic Navy just exploded!” Lyoth declared to Neptithia.

“My gods, they are really at war?” she replied, almost in disbelief. “What are you planning on doing?”

“Doing?” Fonith scoffed. “We’re not doing anything! My ship’s not made for war.”

“And we don’t know the reason they’re at war?” Stawren asked her aunt.

“They must all be fighting for control of the Omni, whatever that is.”

Phentrom spoke up, “Lyoth, there’s something there, in space.” He pointed out the ship’s window. “My sensors are calculating the movements of the battle, and all the ships are avoiding that patch of space.”

“I can’t see anything.”

“Neither can I.”

Stawren looked back at the screen. “Auntie Thia, can you access a deep space telescope and point it directly where we tell you? Phentrom has noticed something.”

“Two shakes of a lamb’s tail!” Neptithia replied.

“I’ll send you the positioning,” Fonith added, punching in the data.

Neptithia whistled to herself. “Got it! Huh… it looks like there’s a shadow on space, blackness on the black background, and what a black background!”

“I know,” Fonith replied. “It’s so bizarre that there are no stars or galaxies beyond this point.”

“But what is it, auntie Thia?” Stawren asked.

“Don’t know, but since the ships in the battle are avoiding it, do you have a bot or something you could fly out to have a closer look?”

Fonith perked up. “I do! This is…” she said as she entered several commands, “Little Sneak.” She pointed to one of the exterior windows and a very small robot zipped past. “Let’s see what she discovers.”

“I’ll stay connected and keep looking for what I can find about the war,” Neptithia commented, and she fell silent.

“Little Sneak has pulled off some impressive covert missions for me,” Fonith told the others. She piloted it nearer and nearer to the anomaly, and none of the battling militaries noticed it. “She’s less than a kilometer away.”

“Neptithia, are you seeing this?” Lyoth asked.

She looked up from her data-searching and gasped. “Omni,” she whispered to herself. “I know what that is, but I’ve only heard them theorized. Stawren, before the plague, the high science counsel that existed on Allthrin used to talk about the possibility of single gateways with the capacity to transport physical matter instantly to multiple other parts of the universe. They thought it was unlikely, and they said it would not possess the appearance of a standard cosmic portal; they said it would look like a sheen on space. There was even talk of how the energies from one of these would repel other cosmic bodies from its path. I think that’s what caused this empty quadrant.”

“How did you remember all these details, auntie Thia?”

Neptithia let out a laugh. “I used to sleep with one of the high science chiefs,” she admitted. “We used to talk about their theories a lot.”

“Any idea,” Fonith asked, “if I’ll lose Little Sneak if I send her through?”

“If you don’t have some way to give the portal a command of where to send it, your bot will end up who knows where.”

Fonith furrowed her brow and called Little Sneak back. “We won’t be losing you today.”

Without warning, the green light began blinking. “Who the blazes is hailing us?” Fonith asked herself.

“On it!” Neptithia replied. “Oh, it’s coming from the planet where the base was supposedly built. I guess it was. Are you going to answer?”

“I am.” Fonith pushed the button, and a young girl appeared on their screen. She was pale and her hair was blonde, but part of her head was shaved. The child was dressed in what looked like little more than a flimsy hospital gown, and she was terrified. Fonith attempted to say, “This is the starship Comet…”

“Please, help me!” the girl hissed in a harsh whisper. She looked over her shoulder and back at the screen. “They’re killing us!”